China

Meizu is a name that is perhaps best known in China. And while that may be a true statement, it looks like the recent announcement for the Meizu MX3 may bring some talk from those outside that market. Coming off of some recent rumors and leaks, Meizu has officially announced the MX3 and it will indeed have storage options ranging as high as 128GB.

China is definitely one of the biggest growth markets in all of the mobile phone and smartphone world. While Europe and the US are very developed when it comes to the smartphone market, China is still growing rapidly. A low-cost smartphone from a Chinese company called Xiaomi has taken China by storm and has an impressively low bill of materials.

Google's Vice President of Product Management Hugo Barra is leaving Google, and sources appeared claiming that he'll be taking up employment with Chinese phone maker Xiaomi. Shortly after the news surfaced, Google confirmed that the executive is parting ways and confirmation has appeared on Weibo about the job he has lined up.

If you thought we've seen all of the leaks concerning Sony's coming smartphone called the Xperia Z1 (or Honami) over the last few weeks, you would be wrong. Some new images have surfaced of the smartphone from China. Specifically, these images have surfaced from the Chinese Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center (TENAA) giving us a look at just about every surface of the device.

Smartphone maker HTC is rumored to be in the process of developing a new smartphone operating system that specifically targets the Chinese market. The tip comes from a source who claims to be familiar with the project at HTC. It really comes as no surprise that smartphone makers are developing operating systems specifically for China considering that it's one of the biggest growth markets in the world.

You may not be too familiar with Oppo, and they may not be as popular as some of the big guns like Samsung or HTC, but they're definitely putting up a fight against the big guys, as the Chinese phone maker announced the R819, which comes with a 4.7-inch 720p display, an 8-megapixel camera on the back, and comes stock with Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean.

This week a fellow by the name of Skyline O (translated) has spoken up on the possibility of Apple's next-generation iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C (plastic) having their specifications leaked early. In Chinese forum WeiPhone, Skyline not only lies out the map on how and where early mock-up models for Apple's smartphones were turned into the mock-ups you've seen in tech news over the past few weeks, but takes new photos of a couple he's got on-hand, including a plastic iPhone in pink!

Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales is no stranger to voicing his opinion, and has done such this week in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. During the talk, Wales discussed the issue of censorship, focusing extensively on China and saying that he'd rather Wikipedia not be available in the nation rather than having the website bow to demands of censorship.

The Chinese hacking collective known as APT1 has long been suspected of working with China's army, and as such has garnered its fair share of attention from the powers-that-be. Back in February, the hackers inadvertently revealed the extent of their intentions, doing so by falling for a "honeypot" - one of several decoy water plants. Though their methods were said to be low in sophistication, one Trend Micro researcher says there was no doubting their intentions.

It's been suggested that the next device in the little-known Vivo line will be coming in the form of the Vivo X3, a device whose name signifies simplicity. This device is appearing in blue and has been tipped for a full reveal on the 22nd of August. This device is said by its manufacturer, BBK, to be the new world's thinnest smartphone at just 6mm (that's 0.236 inches). That's just thinner than the Huawei Ascend P6 which cuts in at just 6.18mm thin - ready to cut bread!